Chapter 78: Fire For Fire

Peter's car got closer to the mountain side and the cottage was now in sight.

"There it is. We're almost there. How's Chris doing?" Peter asked as he drove.

"Not good! He's burning up, and his pulse is getting weaker," Sharon told him.

"Hang on my friend, hang on," Peter said, more to himself than to the unconscious Chris.

He was now at the front of the cottage. He pulled the car over and rushed out to the passenger seat to get Chris out. Hector helped him and they carried Chris inside and placed him on the dining table because it was the only thing big and long enough to contain his large figure.

"I'll begin cleaning his wound with some clean water. Victoria, I need you to heat some water and Peter, get your medical tools, quickly!" Sharon ordered them.

She was more than eager to save Chris because if he were to die, she... Well, she would blame herself. She had lost too many people because of her war with Addicus, and she didn't want to lose anyone else.

Peter ran upstairs and rummaged through the things in his bedroom, a bit disoriented, searching for the first aid kit.

"Come on! Where is it?" He asked himself in frustration until he finally found the kit.

He ran back down with it and handed it to Sharon.

"Peter, I'll need your help. You've removed a bullet out of someone before, right?" Sharon asked him.

"Well technically, no, but I know how it's done. Back in the army, the medics were the ones that did operations like this," Peter replied, "Why? Don't you know how to do it?"

"Back at the University, we had a theoretical class about doing surgery on animals in the wild that got shards of wood stuck in them. If the animal couldn't remove the shard, it'd most likely die from it. I read books that explained how to do it, but I never actually did it in practice. Then, I got shot by JJ and I kind of remember them doing it to me," Sharon said, but the only thing Peter seemed to hear was that she had been shot.

"**Shot**? You were shot? Where, when?" Peter asked her frantically.

"On the leg, just above my knee," Sharon said while ripping Chris's shirt off so she could see the bullet wound.

Peter bent down to take a look at where she had been shot and noticed that she was also bleeding.

**"Sharon, you're bleeding!"**

"The wound must have opened back up while we were escaping," she said without too much care or consideration for her injury.

"We have to take a look at it," Victoria said and walked over to Sharon's leg.

"Guys, I'm fine, okay? It's just a wound on the leg, and it's already been treated. What's important now, is saving Chris, so can we just focus on that?" Sharon said aloud, angry and desperate.

"I'll be outside keeping watch, to make sure we weren't followed," Hector told them.

"Good idea, Hector," Peter responded and nodded at him and Hector went outside.

She finally got his shirt off, and she put on a surgeon's mask.

"Hand me the disinfectant!"

She poured it on the wound and Chris flinched in pain, although he was out.

"Surgical tweezers?" Sharon asked and Peter gave them to her.

"You have to be careful so you don't rip open an artery. Take it slow," Peter warned.

Sharon stuck the tweezers into Chris's side and moved it around and further in, searching for the bullet until she touched something.

"I think I have it!" She said in excitement and began pulling out. She pulled slowly until she finally got the bullet out.

"You did it!" Victoria said excitedly. But then, Chris started shaking rapidly.

"What's happening to him?" Victoria asked, fearing the worst.

"I don't know. I think he's crashing. We need to stabilize him!" Sharon shouted and looked at Peter.

"There's some morphine in the kit. It might do the trick," Peter said, and took out the syringe and put the morphine in.

He injected Chris with it, right in his chest and he slowly relaxed and stopped shaking, much to Sharon's relief.

"He's stable now! Victoria, get me the hot water."

Victoria ran to the kitchen area and got the kettle of hot water.

Sharon poured some into a bowl and placed a rag in it. She cleaned the wound with hot water, dried it up and took out a needle and some string.

"The wound is too large, so I need to stitch him up," Sharon said, and began sewing Chris's skin like it was a piece of ripped jeans.

She finally finished and bandaged Chris up. His fever dropped, and his breathing became more stable. They had done all they could and had to wait now to see how he would recover.

Sharon walked over to the sink in the kitchen to wash up. She looked at her hands, which were covered in blood. They were shaking uncontrollably, but she held herself together and washed her hands. As she stood by the sink, a wave of sadness enveloped her, and she began to sob. Victoria walked up from behind her and hugged her.

"You did good, Miga. You should be proud of yourself," Victoria said, her voice brimming with love.

*****************

After Sharon and the rest of them had managed to narrowly escape death after being shot at by Addicus' goons, the guards ran back to the mansion to check on their boss. Addicus was still down and out after taking that beating from Peter. His men got to him and got him out of the house that had now caught on fire and was rapidly spreading.